Managing director of Hope Not Hate Nick Lowles celebrated his great London victory over the weekend:

These are amazing stats. Before @hopenothate dropped its Susan Hall dossier, she was polling at 36%. After we exposed her extremist views she dropped to 25% and never recovered. Proves the work of @hopenothate is effective and important https://t.co/XXOPZfwXaC

— Nick Lowles (@lowles_nick) May 5, 2024

As far as Guido remembers, Susan Hall got 32.7% of the vote in the only poll that mattered – the final one. Nick is Jolyoning the result…

That celebration, along with the post on their website “We did it! How HOPE not hate stopped Susan Hall becoming the Mayor of London“, sounds awfully like Hope Not Hate breached a well-known rule for registered charities:

“Whether or not charities choose to undertake political activity, they must never support or oppose a particular political party or endorse a particular political candidate.“

There are many defences in Charity Commission rules that Hope Not Hate can use. For one, its private arm, Hope Not Hate Limited, is not so restricted by the rules. Though it is still overt political campaigning from an organisation that brands itself otherwise. Guido has already taken a look at the personnel running Hope Not Hate – they all happen to have tight links to the Labour Party. Any normal charity can’t launch specific campaigns against political candidates. Why can the socialists?